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No-code startup Innoloft has raised €2mn in a new funding round led by Dutch VC firm Capital Mills. This marks the firm’s first investment into a German company. Innoloft’s no-code platform enables businesses to build web applications without any programming knowledge. Founded in 2019, the startup now counts over 70,000 end-users and includes customers such as Deutsche Telekom, Aachen University, and German state governments. With the new funding, Innoloft plans to accelerate product development and expand its user base. Being a B2B software company, the startup falls well under Capital Mills’ investment focus. The VC firm offers two types of…

Cybercrime hunters have unmasked the alleged leader of LockBit, a hacker network dubbed the “most active ransomware group ever.” LockBit gained global notoriety for holding victims’ data to ransom and ransomware-as-a-service, whereby it licenses malware to other hackers. According to Europol, the gang was behind the world’s most deployed ransomware in 2022 — causing billions of euros worth of damage. Among the high-profile victims are US aerospace giant Boeing, Britain’s Royal Mail and German automotive titan  Continental. Russian entities, however, are notably absent from the list of targets. It will therefore come as little surprise that the gang’s reputed mastermind is a Russian…

A team of researchers have built a vision implant with tiny electrodes the size of a neuron, seeking to help blind people see again. The development of vision implants first emerged in the 1990s. The technology targets patients suffering from damage to the eye, but whose visual cortex— the brain’s visual centre — is active and able to receive signals. But despite the solution’s potential, existing methods are limited by the large size of electrodes and metal corrosion. The research team claims to have addressed both challenges. A new, nano-sized implant Vision implants contain electrodes that send signals to the brain…

Terra Quantum has today revealed its TQ42 Cryptography library — an open-source suite of quantum-resistant algorithms designed to help developers and businesses protect data from current and future cybersecurity threats. The new cryptography library provides developers with post-quantum algorithms and security and key management functions. They can be used across a range of applications, including mobile, web, IoT, and cloud. The library is now available through the GitHub repository. According to the startup, it offers a user-friendly API, scalable architecture, and essential security features like key generation and file deletion capabilities. Specifically, the algorithms found in the repository focus on…

France’s budding AI scene has received another boost from a big investment in the startup Holistic. Amid the celebrations, however, the sale of medtech firm Sonio has added a warning about the dangers of success. The Holistic funding was revealed by Bloomberg on Tuesday. The Paris-based firm has reportedly raised $200mn (€186mn) in a round that values the company at $370mn (€344mn). Holistic has big plans for the cash. According to Bloomberg, the startup wants to build “multi-agent” models that will enable interactions between different AI systems and “genuine AGI capabilities.” Holistic also boasts an eye-catching leadership team. It includes four…

An AI scanning your bank transaction data entails a level of invasiveness that I find difficult to accept — let alone embrace for my own transaction information. But the technology could bring merits, at least in the lending world. Enter Abound. The London-based startup has just raised £800mn for its lending platform that uses AI to determine loan amounts. Dubbed Render, Abound’s AI analyses customers’ full bank transaction data (from income to spending details) to understand their individual financial situation — unlike traditional credit checks. Render then calculates the amount of money customers are able to pay back each month.…

Reuse Brew is a classic German lager with a twist — it’s made from recycled wastewater.  The beer is the result of a tie-up between the south German city of Weissenburg, American water tech company Xylem, and the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Specifically, TUM’s Brewery and Beverage Technology department (why didn’t I study there?!).  While the idea of a sewage brew might be hard to swallow, Xylem ensures us that all the bad stuff is filtered out before the malt, hops, and yeast are added.  First a machine injects ozone into the wastewater. Then the sludge is blasted by…Thi

Infineon, one of the biggest chip makers in Europe, has lowered its revenue outlook for the year, citing “weak” demand from its major target markets. The German company is now expecting a revenue of €15.1bn, plus or minus €400mn. That’s down from the previous forecast of €16bn, plus or minus €500mn. In the second quarter of 2024, Infineon saw a 2% drop in revenue compared to the previous quarter, generating €3.36bn. The decline stands, however, at 12% year-on-year. Revenue in the first quarter of 2024 also decreased by 11% compared to the last quarter of 2023. Jochen Hanebeck, Infineon’s CEO,…

Wayve, a London-based startup working on AI systems for autonomous vehicles, has raised $1bn. The colossal funding round marks the largest single investment in a European AI startup. Japanese conglomerate SoftBank led the funding round alongside tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft. Wayve did not disclose its valuation following the investment.  Founded in Cambridge in 2017, Wayve is developing so-called embodied AI systems for self-driving cars. Unlike pure software AI like ChatGPT, embodied AI serves as the brain for physical objects like vehicles. It lets them see, think, and drive on their own. The technology also works for robots, or any…

The power of generative AI has further ignited the race for advanced humanoid robots, promising more capable machines that can learn and deal with unknown environments and challenges. Amid increasing competition across the globe, Switzerland-based mimic is also throwing its hat in the ring. The startup has raised a pre-seed round of $2.5mn (€2.3mn) to bring the first GenAI-powered collaborative robot to market. A spinoff from ETH Zurich, mimic was founded in 2024 by a team of three researchers working at the intersection of robotics and AI. Aiming to address workforce shortages, the team has developed a robotic humanoid hand that…